The Iowa Review
Volume 20
Issue 3 Fall
1990
Is There a Midwestern Literature?
Michael J. Rosen
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Rosen, Michael J.. "Is There a Midwestern Literature?." The Iowa Review 20.3 (1990): 94-102. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol20/iss3/27
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Article 27
Is There aMidwestern
Literature ?
Michael J. Rosen
the more
western
literature?,"
famous cartoon
Thurber's
her client,
that wants
of the seance in which
Could
possess
plagued with
more
a fraction
immigrant
(Clich?s,
of?certainly
tells
here
and distractions
kept suggest
Midwestern
literature
(and dismissing)
list of clich?s commonly
literature
Midwestern
general stores, flat lands,
conservative
tendencies?
must
the rapt clairvoyant
uncle but there's a horse
"I can't get in touch with your
to say hello." Other
attractions
ing themselves, ways of describing
for instance, one or another
with,
region.
on
"Is there aMid
the question,
I identified with
in James
the medium
to bear down
I TRIED
THE MORE
ascribed
to the
be a homespun web of small towns,
families and
ancestors, middle-class
to earn
not
in fool's
their weight
a
And
whole?truth.)
gold,
I was
the vague feeling that after allmy brooding, I'd do little
than arrive
list of Midwestern
at another
literature's
characterizing,
attributes.
seemingly
less clich?-ridden
And so I had to begin by answering this question, "no." I had to begin
by positing,
Even though
there is no such body
"No,
in the Midwest
I am awriter
called Midwestern
and someone who
literature."
directs
a lit
to feature such regional writers
and
erary center and a bookstore
designed
Iwanted
looked upon
the practical ignorance of the ancients who
writing,
than plain suspicion.
less proven superiority
the undisciplined
world with
such a thing, and rather than
than say "yes" and go about proving
Rather
list specific and favored books that should be on aMidwestern
reading list,
as I could, with
to start, as much
the blank sky over the Mid
Iwanted
out individual positions
west. Then, by making
of light, I hoped to accu
re
a
a
mulate
heavenly body of literature. The ancients
figure for such
con
to
the
for
this
the
considered
word
act,
sidereal, meaning
bring
quired
to use: connect ap
stars together,
and this is the sort of scrutiny Iwanted
we are vast, and
into a
vastly misrepresented)
parently random points (for
like a zodiac sign, every
character traits might
influence,
figure whose
to
it.
tricks of squint
I
the
born
under
wanted
astrologer's
employ
thing
ing
to force
looking
into the background,
of
the dimmer,
points
proliferating
more
to
into
the
force
reluctant
side
eye's rods,
points
off to one
94
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and of repeatedly applying the common,
recognizable,
indigenous
shapes
or some such arche
ear of corn,
of our known world?silo,
skyscraper,
a
attempts to discover
type?in
figure that might best assemble this daunt
us.
randomness
above
ing
even more
was Carol
of
emboldening
Bly's further endorsement
(But
we
"At
the stars as a genuinely Midwestern
make
the
of
best
sign:
night
are what we have instead of a horizonful
stars:
of sea. They are our
they
immensity.")
Therefore,
it essential
I thought
to clear the air of
fluster
obstructing,
the city's bright lights
this ordeal of philo
I had to find a place outside
views;
ing, obscuring
or the
groves of academe. Undertaking
impenetrable
I identified with
in
?talo Calvino's Mr. Palomar, who,
sophical logistics,
encum
order to locate a star in the sky's vault, required the additional
on
brances of "putting on and taking off eyeglasses,
turning the flashlight
and off, unfolding and folding the large chart, losing and finding again the
reference
points."
(Perhaps
that offers a practical
definition
of most
brands
of scholarship.)
I am not,
the way bookstore
the word
"literature"
then, employing
a
it as a qualitative
for
"classics":
those
synonym
category,
constant while
remain
books
that
the
space
selling, perennial
use
chains
steadily
around
them
changes
from "fiction":
every
season.
Their
"literature"
is to be distin
books that
soon-to-be-remaindered
quick-selling,
season
constant.
their allotted space remains
while
change every
canon those books that
I am also banishing
from our constituting
simply
guished
about the region, whether
information
used asmere
geographical
or as
a few
background
writerly
(as in anywhere with
foreground
details)
a
our
can
to
in
of
bookstore
itself that
the token holdings
relegate
(as
study
or
in "nonfiction":
social sciences, nature, photography,
travel). I don't
over their claim to the word
mean to
to
but Iwish
"literature,"
quibble
to the realms of fiction and poetry where,
to para
confine our attention
contain
phraseDiderot,
which
offer
the thing
information
theMidwest will not be the thing itself but the light in
can be
about
seen. Our
ourselves
books
and not
of Midwestern
about
literature will
itself.
I am also declining
"Are
the alternately engaging or academic question,
"
there Midwestern
writers ?authors
born under the sign of the Midwest?
some have written
a
writers
live in the Midwest;
Obviously,
body of
or
a
our
work
but we
purview,
specific book that could be found within
95
can
subsume
hardly
Midwestern
everything
literature. Neither
written
would
as
congress
by that geographical
we want
to exclude a book because
a
however we define that?by
birth,
by non-Mid westerner,
or
or
like
ineluctable
Rather
than
by experience,
sensibility.
by something
over what defines a
to a region, I'll insist that our
claim
person's
haggle
the
attend
itself.
should
designs
specific work
itwas written
In fact, the most
over this question,
even the writer's
but
canon,
ern reader,
and apt idea that occurred to me as I puzzled
unexpected
is that it is not the publisher,
the writer,
the book, or
its place in the Midwestern
story that earns a book
it: Is there aMidwest
determine
the readers who,
collectively,
a
that
chooses
relevant books
engaging,
readership
appealing,
constitute
this body of Midwestern
literature? In other words,
that might
can the question of aMidwestern
literature be best addressed by what
ap
or
occurs to us as writers,
to a reader rather than by what
critics,
peals
can
tenuous
this
but logical leap suggest another ques
And
publishers?
tion: Could
the current interest inMidwestern
books extend to contem
a national
in general because
such books
interest,
satisfy
or even
a kind of writing
for
that
has
been
aban
thwarted,
hunger
or exhausted
One
last way of posing
this question:
elsewhere?
readers
porary
desire,
doned,
Could
we
books
say that these selected books of Midwestern
a reader's satisfied interests are what
in which
literature
are
characterizes
simply
the lit
erature?
But before
enumerating
for inMidwestern
looking
tion Imentioned
sider Midwestern
that would
either
a reader
qualities that
might be
I had to be rid ofthat field of distrac
those attractive
literature,
to con
and simplistic
the troubling
temptation
of a set of salient features,
literature the embodiment
on the
exclude arguably significant works
by insisting
earlier:
or include irrelevant works
of, say, agricultural preeminence,
by
on the
the
for in
of, say,
insisting
importance
family unit. Consider,
of density, population
stance, the characteristics
size, and degree of devel
to
a
that would
have
farmland,
opment
incorporate
(a huge spectrum
presence
the industrial complex). Can
county seat, the river towns, the metropolis,
a
an
St. Louis,
find
emblematic
the Midwest
value,
sign, by connecting
? a
and
few of
Cleveland,
Chicago, Milwaukee,
Indianapolis
Minneapolis,
the constituent
values of that set be a more
the larger lights? Wouldn't
in common with
accurate compilation
of large city traits, sharing more
as a
than with
the Midwest
the nation
other
large cities throughout
96
Wouldn't
whole?
that be "Urban
Literature"?
Would
be any more accurate if our connections
Leroi,
Iowa; Circleville,
Illinois; Prairie City,
the Midwest
through
and Morocco,
Wisconsin;
our emblem
were
Ohio;
In this group, wouldn't
to those of other small-sized
Indiana?
show greatest affinity
properties
those near the coasts? Wouldn't
that be "Rural
Literature"?
for
drawn
only
Oshkosh,
the common
towns,
even
And what
shallwe do with those bright points (on themap or in the sky) that don't
into our first or
like a
fixity,
town or any
Is Ann Arbor more like aMidwestern
planet, is undeniable?
a
a book
town where
has shaped the population? Would
major university
more
set there be in our canon? Is the character of Detroit
governed
by its
quite
fit
in the Midwest
placement
bile industry? Isn't Detroit
(rubber in Akron,
inhabitants? Would
cereals
a book
second
constellation
but whose
or
by the last seventy-five years of the automo
a
more like other
given industry
places where
in Battle
has
the lives of its
conscripted
Creek)
set in Detroit
be in our canon?
can see the increasing discomfort
that comes with each attempt to
trait for the region, even if I say that such a trait can
rural and the metropolitan,
represent the full, complementary
range?the
You
secure an identifiable
of their po
and because
the magnetic
field that exists between
as in a
must disclaim,
larities. To choose an image as "representative"
to
too
too
that there's just
travel brochure,
much variety
little
show, just
and
to see it
with a phrase like
space here to do justice?ending
for
you'll just have
we
the visitor, the viewer or, in our ten
that
again,
(Here,
imply
yourself.
tative library, the reader is the necessary presence for the real sighting.)
of this typical Midwest
be a way of arguing away
might
Photographs
to characterize.
is a limitation with
There
any last temptation
any visual
in
since
and
its
deals
seeing is less
depiction,
documentary,
photography
is shown is necessarily
than belittling: What
less than what
there
believing
is. Cropped
from the context of their surroundings,
their surroundings
from what
surrounds
offers us a singular
it, any photograph
cropped
a
context.
of
is
wild
selection
And
this
the
aspect
genius,
photography's
to illuminate
But the clich?s of Midwestern
the whole.
sample that helps
literature are readily seen in their photographic
kin: lovely aspects of
for the most part, by the disconsolate,
inhabited,
unlovely
places ?places
and innervated. Yes,
contains
the Midwest
lackluster,
inconsequential,
such elements
as
dispirited bus stations, box-shaped,
shops, lonely expanses of empty streets, and quaint,
but I resist the idea that desuetude
and decrepitude,
concrete
out-dated
block
repair
?
signage
the behind-the-times
97
can
that might
and in-need-of-repair
charm a photographer's
attention,
characterize
the Midwest
any better than the gleaming,
International-style
can tell about the
skyscraper's origin in Louis Sulli
building
complexes
van's Chicago.
Mr. Palomar
"the deci
suggests that the way to identify a constellation,
sive proof is to see how it answers when you call it. More convincing
than
on
the matching
of distances
and configurations
with
those marked
the
chart
been
with
is the reply that the luminous dot gives to the name by which
it has
to that sound,
one
in responding
called, its promptness
becoming
it." The stars become "necessary" and "salient" when
the right name
this convincing
each element or star in this
idea, Iwanted
to answer when
called. Therefore,
that
Midwestern
any book
body
call numbers will have to be a book that inte
deserves our Midwestern
is found.
From
the individual within
grates
and even
the contexts
of family, community,
neighbor
or
so that each concentric
ele
contiguous
local politics,
a
is shaped by the others. A place of in terdependency,
and
shapes
on a
given place. Quite
simply, in
product of individual choices that insist
an
a
aMidwestern
to
solution
would
individual's place
book, place
provide
hood,
ment
in the world?even
it appears to provide
a reader called it.
when
its name when
answer
a
problem.
It would
create a living sys
The endemic qualities of a particular
setting would
a system that would
tem bent on self-preservation
(however
threatened),
a means
over
and
of
the enormous,
understanding
assimilating
provide
in
for
time
that
the
first
that
And
world
place.
impinges upon
whelming
I think that readers in America must acknowledge
the rest of the
history,
show the effect of
transmitted world. The book we are speaking of would
news it both creates and receives in its particular place. I suppose
news that
this stems from my sense that literature is untimely journalism,
comes later, after whatever
has happened dawns on us. To reiterate, then,
whatever
the literature we
upon
ment
This
ored,
must
are
defining
a
Midwestern
singular
of news.
is not
the impact of the world
a
settle
live within
particular
should demonstrate
place,
should
to extol mere
in the idiosyncratic
and locally col
reveling
our
book
Midwestern
of locale and citizenry. No,
the peculiarities
in order to trick us into
those specific, unique details
transform
its conventions,
seduce us into lowering our resistance, convince
accepting
us to
that cross any such
the essential human qualities
empathize with
com
can
as
embrace such nourishing,
readers,
regional boundary. We,
98
for ting, and revelatory experiences
only through the conduit of individual
our
senses
can
select from life's accompanying
and local details that
white
noise (the onslaught
of information,
the numbing
inundation of news, the
to sensitize the reader
culture). Our book works
the mere reading of a
his or her own sensitivities
beyond
an
It accomplishes
this by providing
organized
apprehensible,
of mass
manufacturing
and reinforce
book.
world
inwhich
honest
perception,
rewarded
attention,
our
lives outside
of
and clear thinking
a book
rarely pro
are
acknowledged.
(The complexity
The Mid
for self-discovery.)
vides such elegant or enhanced opportunities
not
western
setting should
only affect the lives of its characters but also the
is implied in the constellation.
to be sure,
This is not the exclusive province of Midwestern
literature,
has found a particular receptivity of late, and
but it seems that regionality
this Iwould
credit to a sense of place that exceeds the idea of "setting" we
to and contrasted
learned about in high school (a concept to be compared
lives of its readers. Here
again,
the reader
and theme). Instead, setting is that identifiable
and influences those other essay questions:
that nurtures,
expresses,
acter, plot, and theme.
with
character,
plot,
source
char
resource
is still an untapped
a
of specificities,
unexhausted
that can yet
trappings
place of unretold,
a
a
can
catch
reader off-guard,
reader reading, paying attention,
yet keep
I
in the writing
interest
heed.
of other na
suspect contemporary
paying
of translated literature ?South
East
tions, the popularization
American,
And
perhaps
in the Midwest,
that location
and so on ?is not unlike this keen
Australian,
readers seeking a more
curious,
unpredictable,
ern
European,
the Midwest:
literature
delighting
reader the ultimate
that, because of its foreignness
the vivid
reward of recognizing
interest
in
devious,
and novelty, offers the
con
and extraordinary
to which
the human spirit is subjected.
wrote:
"It is a great blessing,
O'Connor
Flannery
perhaps the greatest
a writer
can have, to find at home what others have to go else
blessing
to
where
but her
seeking." She, of course, referred
Georgia,
Milledgeville,
ditions
to the writers
apply
of
the foreign ?"what
ing
words
in the Midwest
others
have
who
have undertaken
to go elsewhere
seeking"?in
the find
their
own homes. William Maxwell compounds this idea in The Folded Leaf:
is how to be always on a journey and see
"The great, the universal problem
see if it were
to stay at home."
In
what you would
only possible for you
can
assume that the
I think we
both instances,
primary quality in such a
book, what
the reader feels most
assuredly,
is a sense that the home place
is
99
are focused,
the vanishing
through which
things
point from
are drawn,
in
the
which
is
things
language
perception
wrought.
I'll suggest that the very popularity
of Midwestern
the dis
literature,
the
lens
which
of what
has already been produced
is just being pro
and what
series, and even the resurgence of
duced, the novelty of a regional-voices
the personal essay is being generated by readers who desire the presenta
tion of a reachable literature whose
values are recognizable
and even heart
covering
mean
can
to "give heart," as in to
ening, if that
revivify feelings,
simply
or
elated
each
be.
The Heartland
however
frustrated,
might
complicated,
a
in the values yet possible
in the story
reader interested
reader would
be
telling of this region, because he or she is tired of the bright lights of the
of Manhattan.
Fed up with
less
receiving
big city and the cannibalizing
than zero from a book about precocious,
jaded youths
(a novel,
privileged,
to find a naive, less arch voice),
irritated with yet
but frustrated attempt
route to the Indies ?this
time from the point of view
stylistic
of the spices, and resentful of the fiction of inexpressible velleities,
glower
that leave us asking, Where are
and moot
recognitions
ing disinclinations,
new
another
you callingfrom? What did I miss?Midwestern readersmay deny it is their
fault that the writer's
world
lacked gravity,
of conferences
seasons,
or any real
are
being held
a heaven,
and symposia
Increasing numbers
to descry and discuss a body of literature that provides something
different
it
Could
be
that the
of
than these august and aggrieved
style.
expressions
a
is will
toward reading
literature
and interest in regional
proliferation
are not such books,
toward
there
if
books about ourselves
writing
(and
location.
literature has not been telling our story, that
them) because contemporary
to tell a story?
it has even deigned
is, when
over
aswell enjoy the
in
I'm
Now
that
my head, Imight
plunge by pro
in
interest
literature
has
less
and
that
Midwestern
experimentation
posing
more
in oral histories
and dialogue,
clear narrative and genuine
conflict,
a vocation
to the
inwriting
for
that
possibility
and that this is attributable
someone
knowable
in the Midwest
choice.
has been,
creative writer
The
less
recently,
was
less available
until
a
recognizable,
in the form of
creative writing
There had
classes, bookstores.
aMidwestern
writer. Until
the last two decades,
or busi
to technical writing
enterprise
(as opposed
in elementary
been held at any premium,
except
mentors,
communities,
been no cachet to being
as a voluntary
writing
ness
hasn't
writing)
or
some
in
schools,
private
100
colleges.
The
professions
of fiction
and poetry
(as decidedly
imaginable,
erature?and
different
from
the widespread
amateur's
as
interest) weren't
of Midwestern
so that one critical
lit
aspect underlying much
its popularity?could
be this very ingenuousness
about be
a
innocence
about
the
of
the
Midwest
refreshing
plausibility
a
ing writer,
a late
as the
setting for literature. Perhaps this lack of
style and its proble
to contemporary
is
matic
readers.
what
Furthermore,
thrashings
appeals
our Midwestern
could possess this ingenuousness.
reader, as well,
of writers
could err on the side of
Of course, such a young generation
wistfulness,
zeal,
than
differently
forms of narrative.
but
ineptitude,
self-consciousness
those errors would
still affect the reader
and discontentment
with
traditional
or
And to defend this idea of ingenuousness,
humility,
to the witness
I'll recall Flannery O'Connor
stand: "To know oneself is to
and it is also, paradoxi
know one's region. It is also to know the world,
cally,
himself
a form of exile
from
is lost, both to
as soon as he ceases to see that country as a part
the world.
The writer's
value
and to his country,
of himself, and to know oneself
is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is
to measure oneself
and not the other way around. The first
against Truth,
is humility,
and this is not a virtue conspicuous
product of self-knowledge
in any national character."
on the part of writers
that distinguishes Midwest
Perhaps it is humility
ern literature?a
writers
where
understand
that their value is the
place
value of their region. And perhaps
an
to sense themselves
opportunity
and to sense themselves.
it is this humility which
allows readers
both to employ their senses,
?I mean,
as
so I have come upon Michael Martone's
image of the Midwest
aMidwestern
skin that he suggests in his essay "The Flatness." Consider
it
of
It acts as a
the
location
the
skin
reader.
consider
the
contains,
book,
And
membrane
identity.
(resistant
sensation
that provides both a personal (an "I") and a collective
(an "us")
some
to
to
It is permeable
things,
(accepting of)
impermeable
stores. It acquires, bringing
the
to) others. It insulates, protects,
of temperature
and pressure, discomfort
and pleasure and most
at any given time.
and orientation
kinesthesia,
placement
significantly,
a means of
it creates homeostasis:
And as a result of all these properties,
remaining
compatible
with
or comfortable
within
a
changing
environ
ment.
The Midwestern
ity, met
expectations
a
compatibil
looking for ismade of
reader and writer,
experience and language,
literature we
between
are
101
which
of Velcro's
the roughened
requires the joining
loops and hooks:
of
are needed
to
that
recognition
loops
(cycles, patterns,
repetitions)
the
hooks
of
engage
surprise (snags, interruptions,
points, poignancies).
Whatever
would
be surprising about a book would
engage the reader's
ultimate
whatever
would
be recognizable
about the book,
recognition;
?so
the
reader's
initial
in
the
that,
engage
progress of read
surprise
a
combination
of linkages, a ladder to shared crea
ing, there is continuous
tion that is not unlike the
of DNA
strands between
the male
recombining
would
and female
genes.
leave you to assign your own shape to our Midwestern
literature.
I suppose I can accept, by way of conclusion,
that I have found, by tracing
a
own
with
in
and balancing
my
flashlight,
gazing
skyward
backyard,
Thornton Wilder,
William
Toni Morrison,
Maxwell,
Morris,
Wright
Mr.
Willa
Mrs.
and
and several other arm
Cather,
James Purdy,
Bridge,
Iwill
loads of books,
rather
grounded
is a last return
the Sign of the Reader ?an
earthly figure after all, a
than a lofty sign. Leaving you to assign your own
figure,
to this
literature existing under the
figure of Midwestern
Sign of the Reader. After Mr. Palomar's evening of star gazing, his "twist
or toward the north,
ing toward the south
every now and then turning on
to
the flashlight
and holding
the charts
his nose . . . craning his neck back
and so on,
wards"
beach where
he
looks up
to discover
that all around
a pair of lovers,
he has been observing,
These real people
a fisherman,
him, on the
a customs
and a boatman.
have populated
the ground around
like earthly constellations.
And he himself realizes that "a few paces
from him a little crowd has gathered,
his movements
like the
observing
Mr. Palomar,
convulsions
of amadman."
the observers of constellations,
man,
him
a necessary
answers when
has become
Palomar
And
star in this zodiac: The Madman.
the name
The Writer.
Mr.
of the star is called.
so I am left
a
the call numbers of
finding
body of readers that makes
into
that
calls
of
the
literature
for works
that
literature,
body
Midwestern
answer.
For the reader,
there may
the earth-bound North
also holds
be the North
Star above,
but he or she
of a compass
needle that, regardless of
or the
a
foreign surroundings,
provides orientation,
a
constant
to
on
return. In each book
our shelves of
from which
begin
can
we
sense
I
Midwestern
believe
this
and
literature,
compass needle,
the distance
whether
where
traveled
the characters
readers, wherever
can find
sented world,
102
it or not,
consult
are
reading
they
themselves.
to the home
it points
place,
in this vast and
vastly misrepre